It is worth recalling that military intervention in the internal affairs of nation-states is generally not thought sound US Policy. The Republicans are still likely trying to sell off the Baathist "Weapons of Mass Destruction," never found when Saddam Hussein was deposed. The Baathist High Command is noted to now be called ISIS, a Republican creation.
So below, recall that like the Obama Administration--it is difficult to assess conditions and requirements on the ground from an office in Washington, D. C., even only hundreds of miles away, involving hundreds left behind.
_____________________________________
The Bay of Pigs Revisited
by
Michael D. Morrissey
The failure of the invasion of Cuba in April, 1961 by 1500 CIA-trained anti-
Castro expatriates is generally attributed to President Kennedy's loss of nerve
at the critical moment, when he cancelled the air strikes which were supposed to
incapacitate Castro's air force. As a result, more than a hundred men were
killed, the rest surrendered, and the Cuban exiles in America never forgave
Kennedy for this "betrayal."
Kennedy did assume full public responsibility for what he too considered a
disaster, as he should have. Privately, though, he blamed the CIA, and fired the
three top men in the agency responsible for the operation: Director Allen
Dulles, Deputy Director Gen. Pearr Cabell, and Deputy Director for Plans (now
called Operations) Richard Bissell. Immediately after the failed invasion, on
April 22, Kennedy ordered Gen. Maxwell Taylor, the President's special military
representative, Admiral Arleigh Burke, the Chief of Naval Operations, Dulles,
and Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General, to conduct a full investigation of why
the invasion had failed. This was submitted on June 13, 1961, but did not become
available to the public until twenty years later, when a transcript of the
report was published as a book called Operation Zapata (University Publications
of America, 1981). "Operation Zapata" was the code name for the invasion.
This report merits close scrutiny for a number of reasons, particularly in view
of the mountain of literature published on the subject which is inaccurate and
based on material written by or elicited from participants, like Dulles and
Bissell, who had every reason to present a skewed image of the truth.
The first thing to keep in mind is that Kennedy would not have ordered this
investigation if he felt he were truly responsible. He knew what he had and had
not done, and obviously that did not go very far toward explaining how things
had gone so wrong.
The second thing to remember is that the report resulted in the firing of
Dulles, Cabell, and Bissell, so there can be no doubt whom JFK did blame.
I believe a close reading of the report shows that the CIA sabotaged their own
invasion, the purpose being to put JFK in exactly the position he found himself
in: send in the Marines or face disaster. He chose disaster. Two years later,
the same thing happened in Vietnam, and again he chose disaster (i.e.
withdrawal, anathema to the CIA and the military), but this time he didn't
survive.
__________________________________
"13 Hours" apparently finds CIA somehow in the midst of it all again(?)! Liberals, even from the sixties, were not even too enchanted with Vietnam, including the current Secretary of State. . . .finally.
Senator McCain managed to sit the whole thing out, instead: Learning to do impressions of Mudhens taking flight(?)!.
"Crow, James Crow: Shaken, Not Stirred!"
(No one with any sense even withdrew 7th Cavalry from Little Big Horn--before there was CIA!)
So below, recall that like the Obama Administration--it is difficult to assess conditions and requirements on the ground from an office in Washington, D. C., even only hundreds of miles away, involving hundreds left behind.
_____________________________________
The Bay of Pigs Revisited
by
Michael D. Morrissey
The failure of the invasion of Cuba in April, 1961 by 1500 CIA-trained anti-
Castro expatriates is generally attributed to President Kennedy's loss of nerve
at the critical moment, when he cancelled the air strikes which were supposed to
incapacitate Castro's air force. As a result, more than a hundred men were
killed, the rest surrendered, and the Cuban exiles in America never forgave
Kennedy for this "betrayal."
Kennedy did assume full public responsibility for what he too considered a
disaster, as he should have. Privately, though, he blamed the CIA, and fired the
three top men in the agency responsible for the operation: Director Allen
Dulles, Deputy Director Gen. Pearr Cabell, and Deputy Director for Plans (now
called Operations) Richard Bissell. Immediately after the failed invasion, on
April 22, Kennedy ordered Gen. Maxwell Taylor, the President's special military
representative, Admiral Arleigh Burke, the Chief of Naval Operations, Dulles,
and Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General, to conduct a full investigation of why
the invasion had failed. This was submitted on June 13, 1961, but did not become
available to the public until twenty years later, when a transcript of the
report was published as a book called Operation Zapata (University Publications
of America, 1981). "Operation Zapata" was the code name for the invasion.
This report merits close scrutiny for a number of reasons, particularly in view
of the mountain of literature published on the subject which is inaccurate and
based on material written by or elicited from participants, like Dulles and
Bissell, who had every reason to present a skewed image of the truth.
The first thing to keep in mind is that Kennedy would not have ordered this
investigation if he felt he were truly responsible. He knew what he had and had
not done, and obviously that did not go very far toward explaining how things
had gone so wrong.
The second thing to remember is that the report resulted in the firing of
Dulles, Cabell, and Bissell, so there can be no doubt whom JFK did blame.
I believe a close reading of the report shows that the CIA sabotaged their own
invasion, the purpose being to put JFK in exactly the position he found himself
in: send in the Marines or face disaster. He chose disaster. Two years later,
the same thing happened in Vietnam, and again he chose disaster (i.e.
withdrawal, anathema to the CIA and the military), but this time he didn't
survive.
__________________________________
"13 Hours" apparently finds CIA somehow in the midst of it all again(?)! Liberals, even from the sixties, were not even too enchanted with Vietnam, including the current Secretary of State. . . .finally.
Senator McCain managed to sit the whole thing out, instead: Learning to do impressions of Mudhens taking flight(?)!.
"Crow, James Crow: Shaken, Not Stirred!"
(No one with any sense even withdrew 7th Cavalry from Little Big Horn--before there was CIA!)
